


from the desk

by wafflelate



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Split Gardens, Gen, Konoha Bureaucracy, Pre-Uchiha Massacre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 16:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18877294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/pseuds/wafflelate
Summary: Uzume gets a little help from an unlikely place.





	from the desk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pepperdoken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pepperdoken/gifts).



There’s a knock on the door. 

Uzume’s mother is at work. Amano wouldn’t bother knocking. It’s probably something important. It’s hopefully something more interesting and less frustrating than trying to balance her budget for the month to allow her to chip in for Shisui’s replacement sword. Uzume abandons her calculations and goes to open the door. 

It’s a plain-faced girl with a high, long braid. No clan mon, holding a mission scroll, and looking positively unarmed. A mission desk clerk. 

“Uchiha Uzume, right? Here you go.” The girl hands the scroll over. “Three-week B-rank, some kind of corporate espionage.” 

She’ll miss Shisui’s birthday, but at least she can definitely put in for the sword. “Do I get to request teammates?” she asks, already unrolling the scroll to check for herself even as she asks. The answer is a very definite no — Uzume is leading a squad of random chūnin. Great. 

“It was assigned before I got my hands on it,” the girl says. She actually sounds apologetic, and when Uzume looks up she’s got a sympathetic look on her face. “Who do you usually ask for?” 

“Hyūga Amano,” Uzume says, although she doesn’t expect anything to come of it. 

“I’ll do my best next time.” 

It’s probably a lie, but most people these days don’t even bother with that much. Uzume thanks her, and then studies the scroll again. She’s supposed to meet her team at the gates in the next half an hour, which doesn’t leave any time for the other things she was going to do today. “Are you going back to the tower?” she asks the girl. “I have a piece of unclassified, low-priority paperwork I meant to turn in today, but...” Uzume taps the scroll with the back of her hand. “No time now.” 

The girl’s eyes flick to the scroll and she frowns at it — but then she looks back at Uzume and shrugs. “Sure, I’ll take whatever you want back.” 

Uzume ducks back inside for a moment and grabs the form she’d half-heartedly filled out on Shisui’s behalf requesting that the Logistics & Supply department reconsider their decision to not reimburse Shisui at least part of the cost of his sword. The Uchiha budget has grown tighter and tighter as even the small amount of funding the village had previously given for the KMP has dried up, and since the sword was broken as a direct result of completing mission objectives, it _should_ be possible to get it covered. When Uzume was Shisui’s age, it would have been no problem. 

The girl leaves, headed for the stairwell instead of the open window at the end of the hall. 

Uzume ducks back inside one more time to scribble a note to Amano, which she leaves on the kitchen counter, and then grabs her mission pack. She’ll run into at least one MP before she gets to the gates, and any one of them can let her mother know that she’s on a long mission. Again. 

* * *

“Uchiha Shisui is on your team, isn’t he?” the girl behind the mission desk asks Shisui’s captain. 

That’s probably not a good sign. Dread crawls up Shisui’s spine, makes a home in his ribcage so intrusive it’s a little hard to breathe. It’s not a normal reaction, but the world has felt like it’s closing in recently. 

Will it be another mission? Will it be yet another reassignment? Will it be more second-guessing over some long-past mission? 

Shisui inches out from behind his captain and raises a hand. “Here.” 

The girl lights up. “Great!” she chirps, and reaches under the desk for something — some kind of half-sheet form already filled out with a bunch of info. 

When Shisui takes it, he’s careful not to hold it like he thinks it’s dangerous, although it probably is. To Shisui’s surprise, the top of the form indicates that it’s from Logistics & Supply. 

“Take it to any weapons shop in Konoha and trade it for whatever sword you want,” says the girl behind the desk. “And tell Uzume-san I said hi.” 

“I, uh, I will,” Shisui says, dazed. His team has already left and there are more people waiting to check back in behind him, so he wanders away without even asking her name, wondering how she knows Uzume and why the denial of his equipment replacement request was overturned. 

* * *

“Mission desk?” Tokimi asks. “No, that doesn’t ring any bells — but Uzume’s been out of the village almost as long as you.” 

“Again?” Shisui asks. “That’s — I mean, other people get breaks. Long ones, Tokimi-ba. _Without_ being hospitalized.” 

Tokimi is slicing eggplant for dinner, enough for three people just in case Amano stops by, which she hopes he will. She looks away from the cutting board to Shisui, who’s studying his new sword under the light above the kitchen table, turning it this way and that, occasionally flashing light across the ceiling. 

“It’s probably not worth complaining about,” Tokimi says. 

She and Shisui make eye contact for a moment, both thinking the same thing — who would we even complain _to?_ — and then Tokimi goes back to the eggplant. 

Shisui says, “At least the girl at the mission desk was nice?” but it’s a poor consolation prize, and one that probably won’t last. 

* * *

When Kakashi steps up to the mission desk to see what his extremely boring and public mission for this quarter of the year will be, no one helpfully provides him with a mission scroll. The desk ninja are all busy — two of them arguing, and the rest all watching in fascination. 

“There are _rules_ ,” says the teenage genin behind the counter to her fellow desk nin, a man who must be at least twice her age. 

The man sneers at her. “I _know_ there are rules.” 

“Maybe they’ve updated them since you last read them. We can’t send her to Land of Stone for three months.” 

There’s the barest spike of hostile intent from the chūnin. Not true killing intent, but Kakashi can see the man’s hands clench and his stance settle, like he’s about to try and strangle this genin right here, in front of everyone. If Kakashi sees him do that, he’ll have to actually escalate this situation to Inoichi or someone, and that sounds like a terrible waste of his time, so he butts in. 

“Sorry to interrupt when you’re being so unprofessional,” Kakashi says. “I’m great at conflict resolution, and I know all about all kinds of rules. Why don’t you tell me what the problem is?” He pins the chūnin with a look for a moment and then glancing at the genin as well to include her in the conversation. 

“Ah, Hatake-san—” 

“Just Kakashi is fine,” Kakashi says mildly. It’s _weird_ when people are so respectful, and usually just because they’ve heard he can kill people really well. 

“—there’s no problem,” says the chūnin. “We have your mission right here...” He fumbles for the right scroll on the desk in front of him, which is not covered in the orderly stack it usually is. 

“Actually, Kakashi-san, there is a problem,” the genin says. 

“So _formal_ ,” Kakashi complains. Again. Jeez. 

She huffs at him. It’s cute, like a puppy barking — ineffectual, but earnest. “Kakashi- _senpai_ , then?” 

He nods imperiously, gestures for her to continue, and ignores the scroll the chūnin is trying to hand him. 

“Kakashi-senpai, the mission desk has sent one of the special jōnin out on six international missions back-to-back, all of them longer than a month, most of them without even a full week to rest in between,” the genin says. “Her last mission was twice as long as it should have been, and now they’re trying to send her out _again_.” 

He looks at the chūnin now, waiting to hear the other side of this. 

“She’s a special jōnin in tracking,” the man says, and sniffs. “Amago is new, and should really still be running messages. She doesn’t understand how the desk works yet. You know how children are.” 

“Sounds like she has a point,” Kakashi says. “If you run ninja too hard they break, you know.” 

The chūnin scoffs. “Too hard? She certainly hasn’t complained.” 

“The rules are clear, she should at least be on short domestic missions only if we can’t give her any time off,” Amago says — and she speaks straight to Kakashi, ignoring the chūnin entirely. Probably because she’s realized that _Kakashi_ is the one that needs to be convinced. 

This, he reflects, is really annoying. And above his pay grade. He swipes the scroll that’s apparently supposed to be his mission out of the chūnin’s hand. It’s an S-rank, providing security at some hot spring while the Daimyō’s wife goes for a soak for a few days. Basic security, no combat expected — mostly a way to make sure Kakashi is seen doing important work for the village, because the Sandaime has been trying to build up his reputation. 

It would be excruciatingly boring. Kakashi wouldn’t even be able to read during the mission. 

“I could take the tracking mission off this special jōnin’s hands”—Whatever it is, it won’t involve the Daimyō’s wife, at least—“but she’ll need a jōnin to go along with her on my mission, I think.” 

Well, a fresh academy student of middling quality could probably look after the Daimyō’s wife at hot spring resort pretty well, but it _is_ S-rank. For _politics_. Much more dangerous than anything physical. 

Amago hums and picks up a second scroll — probably the one for the mission the overworked special jōnin is supposed to be going on. 

The chūnin says, “We can’t just _reassign missions_.” 

“Kakashi-senpai probably has the rank to do whatever he wants,” Amago says absent-mindedly, studying some part of the mission scroll she’s holding closer and then checking the roster behind the desk that tells them who’s in the village. 

Kakashi decides he likes her. 

Amago looks up from the roster. “There’s a jōnin that could go with her. Will you wait here while I go check with him?” 

Kakashi shrugs and pulls out his book. She darts off to go harass some jōnin into going on a spa retreat. 

“Unbelievable,” the chūnin behind the desk says. 

* * *

Amano meets the runner from the tower at the entrance to the Hyūga compound. She’s not anyone he recognizes, but Amano doesn’t have much to do with genin. “I need to discuss, uh, mission things with you,” she says vaguely, and ushers him a good distance away from the other Hyūga. “You’re friends with Uchiha Uzume, right?” 

“Yes,” Amano says suspiciously. That’s public knowledge, but he can’t see any good reason for it to come up in a discussion with someone from the Tower. 

“Great,” the girl says. “I need a jōnin to agree to go on a mission with her. Three days, good pay, scenic location.” 

Yes, this is... very weird. 

“Why?” 

The girl shifts. “Well. Rules and regulations? Basically?” She gestures back at the tower. “It’s kind of time-sensitive. Will you do it?” 

There’s nothing Amano wouldn’t do for Uzume. He accepts the mission. It’s still suspicious, but at least he and Uzume will be together to watch each other’s backs. 

The mission desk girl thanks him, tells him to pack and then meet Uzume at the village gates, and then leaves. 

* * *

The first weird thing that happens at the gates the morning Uzume’s mission begins is that Hatake fucking Kakashi comes by and not only actually dares to make eye contact with her, but _speaks_ to her. 

The second weird thing is that he says, “This is yours. Wait for your mission partner here,” and hands her a mission scroll before leaving the village with the people Uzume was pretty sure were supposed to be _her_ squadmates. That bastard. 

The third weird thing is that Amano shows up packed for a light mission and asks, “Is that our mission?” 

Uzume looks down at the scroll in her hands and then back up at him. ”Is it?” she asks. 

The mission scroll sends them to the capital, where the Daimyō’s wife is _very_ impressed that Konoha spared two members of its noble clans to guard her on her short getaway. Uzume gets to scare away a few lookie-loos at the spa and, even sleeping in shifts, spends more time with Amano during this mission than she has in six months combined. She’s missed him so much, and even fetching the same cat out of various trees on a near-hourly basis like some kind of hellish, unending D-rank is enjoyable with Amano there to share the work. 

“Even The Perp would never have done this to us,” Uzume says after about the sixth time. 

Amano nods seriously at her. “The Perp was a model citizen,” he says, and reaches out to pat the little felon Uzume is holding. 

Really, the cat is just bored. And at least it gives them something to do besides eyeing rich civilian women suspiciously. 

At the end of the mission, the Daimyō’s wife thanks them profusely for their time and professionalism and then says she’s going to request them by name “next time”, which leaves Uzume shell-shocked long past their departure from the capital. 

“I guess it went... well?” she says to Amano on the way back to Konoha. 

“We might have to chase that cat again,” he points out. “And I think it was learning. Growing stronger.” 

Uzume laughs. “I can protect you from the cat, Amano.” 

“Me? No, I was worried about _you_ ,” he shoots back. 

On their next jump she purposely side-swipes him so he has to flip in midair to land right. He gets her on the next jump, and before she realizes what she’s doing they’re running twice as fast as before, breathless, playing tag like fresh genin coming back from an S-rank. 

It’s a good day. A _great_ day. The best Uzume’s had in a long, long time. 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Paperless](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19713568) by [Rokasan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rokasan/pseuds/Rokasan)
  * [timely assist](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20306008) by [Zoe324](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoe324/pseuds/Zoe324)




End file.
